Loved Lucy Friendship Lucille Ball
Few persons knew America’s comic sweetheart Lucille Ball the way Lee Tannen did. Lee firstborn met Lucy as a child but cemented their close and enduring friendship as an adult. During the last ten years of Lucy’s life–years largely lived out of the spotlight and mainly around a backgammon table in New York, Beveryly Hills, Snowmass, Colorado and Palm Springs, Lee was fortunate sufficient to be sitting opposite Lucy. For the firstborn time we get a glimpse of what it was like to be with Lucy, the way she veritably was, and the way she chose to live. This is Lucy the way you’ve never seen her before; a warts and all look at arguably the most famous female entertainer of the twentieth century! Perhaps Lucy’s daughter Lucie Arnaz summed it up best when she said,”What a fantasti look through the keyhole at this distinctive and elaborated woman. A more perfective portrait of the the lost Lucy years I can not imagine being drawn. It had me in tears. Good tears. People ought to read I LOVED LUCY.”
From Publishers WeeklyWhile Kathleen Brady’s great Lucille: The Life of Lucille Ball (1994) is still the benchmark for biographies on the red-headed comedienne who ruled the TV airwaves from 1951 through 1974, this slighter memoir, focusing on the last decade of her life, is still a treat for fans who carry on to love Lucy. Tannen, a distant relative through marriage, befriended Ball (1911-1989) for the duration of the last decade of her life. By this time, Ball was spending most days playing backgammon and confining professional appearances for the most part to yearly Bob Hope specials. Whereas Jim Brochu’s Lucy in the Afternoon (1990) covered the same ground, Brochu pulled memories from Ball as they toiled over the backgammon table, creating an oral history of her professional and private life. Tannen’s portrait of Ball is less reflective on the past, rather concentrating on her feeling of annoyance at being hindered or criticized at being refused one of the outstanding joys of her life her work because of bad health and poor decisions. Gary Morton is staged as an absentee husband (when not golfing, he’s in his study on the phone with friends). His bad career counsel leads Ball into two late-in-life disasters: a TV movie (1985′s Stone Pillow), which ruined her health, and the poorly conceived TV series Life with Lucy (1986), which, when canceled, convinced her that she no longer had a career or fans who wanted to see her. Tannen believes that this led Lucy to lose a lively interest for life. This affectionate and intimate but by no means rose-colored portrait presents Ball as a demanding taskmaster at a loss for the duration of her twilight years. Fans won’t learn much new here, but it’s still a suitable visit. Photos not seen by PW. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library JournalLucille Ball will always be remembered as Lucy Ricardo, the wacky redhead who was evermore getting herself into hilarious situations. The queen of comedy was a very dissimilar person in her private life. Writer/director Tannen, who is a distant cousin of Gary Morton, Lucy’s second husband, became one of the comedienne’s nearest friends before her death. This book is not a biography but a essay of those years. Tannen expended a great deal of hours playing backgammon with Lucy, going on ski trips, accompanying her to awards ceremonies, and traveling anyplace else Lucy wanted to go. Writing with sensitivity and passion, Tannen shows us the real Lucy, who could be lovable but also very controlling, reclusive, and demanding. The only fault here is Tannen’s flexibleness with chronology; it would have been having little impact to follow had he kept the time line more focused. Otherwise, this is a great book with regards to one of the great Hollywood legends. Lucy fans will not be disappointed. Recommended for larger libraries. Rosalind Dayen, Broward Cty. South Regional Lib., Pembroke Pines, FL
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From BooklistTannen draws “solely from memory,” so no impertinent documentation obstructs his “remembrance of a friendship and of a time in my life expended with a remarkable woman.” Tannen, distantly affiliated to Lucille Ball’s husband Gary Morton, met Ball at family gatherings. He breezily delineates the Morton family’s delicious details, starting with the fact that Gary was an ex of the sister of JFK playgirl Judith Exner. From such obscurity Lucy plucked him to run her Hollywood empire, among other things, such as marriage. His main theme, then, is Lucy in her later years. His bond with her was forged nearly over a backgammon board, and she soon became a positive maven of the game. Tannen and his, uh, collaborator Tom became Lucy’s traveling companions, getting to know rather well her strained relationships with her children, her quick, star-powered temper, and more. Other stars pop up all around Tannen’s recollections; even Leona Helmsley rears her head: “Good God, what a bore,” Lucy opined. Delightful light reading and, of course, required for Lucy fans. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Most helpful client reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
 The best book on Lucy that I’ve ever read…
By Kevinduran
… and I’ve read most of them!
I sort of expected this book to be galore tabloidish tale, an exploitive expose’ with regards to The Queen Of Television Comedy. I was altogether defective and am not penitent to confess that.
It was one of the only books when it comes to Lucille Ball that I had not purchased. I ran all over it one day at the library so I checked it out. I ended up purchasing the book for my collection before I even finished it. The glowing letter of endorsement from Lucy’s daughter Lucie Arnaz that graces the back cover ought to have been sufficient for me to make the buy upon it is release!
Tannen dishes a lot of dirt here, but it’s not one thing that Lucy would inevitably be crazy at him for revealing. His words give Lucy fans a finish idea of what Lucy’s last years were like. Stories regarding how Lucy desperately wanted to make the movie “Driving Miss Daisy” (Lee says she would have been all faulty for it, and he’s right); her disastrous last two projects (the TV movie “The Stone Pillow”, and the failed ABC sitcom “Life With Lucy”); her obsession with backgammon and game shows (she loved Vanna White of “Wheel Of Fortune”), plus a lot of other stories let us in on a Lucy we never actually knew.
As the star of one of the world’s most general TV shows, most people would think that Lucy lived a grand life of luxury. She did, but she seemed largely incognizant that it was so grand- and that it could have been even grander. She did not receive pleasure from change. Her homes are described in detail, down to what the furniture looked like. It’s all exceedingly riveting, particularly for anybody that is a fan of Lucille Ball.
The thing that makes this book so terrifi is that you veritably get a sense that Lee Tannen REALLY did love Lucy. He didn’t write this book to cash in on anything. He just wanted to part a side of Lucy with her fans that they didn’t know in regards to before. She does’t come out smelling so perfective at all times, but this book surely will not tarnish anyone’s effigy of her.
If you have any interest in Lucille Ball at all, this is a book that you will not want to miss out on. It was exceedingly hard to put down.
7 of 8 humans found the following review helpful.
 I Loved It
By Ann Sherry
This is a book regarding a distant relative of Gary Morton’s kinship with Lucille Ball for the duration of the last ten years of her life. He expended a good amount of time with Lucy, and he shares with us their dinner dates, skiing in Colorado, going to the theatre and, of course, backgammon! I couldn’t put the book down. The private life of Lucy after “I Love Lucy” is fascinating, no matter what she said or did – I wanna listen it all. The author tells the story always with love for Lucy and with a good sense of humor of his own. Lucy fans must treasure this.
6 of 7 persons found the following review helpful.
 the last ten years of Lucille Ball’s life
By Karen Sampson Hudson
Lee Tannen was a good friend and frequent backgammon collaborator of Lucy for the duration of the last ten years of her life. He presents us with a lightweight yet winning book, though at times I felt I had strayed into the script of “Sunset Boulevard” as he details Lucy’s isolation, her days expended playing backgammon inside her shuttered Beverly Hills home, with her outdated 50′s decor and kitchen appliances.
He doesn’t make the Lucy he knew into a saintly figure; rather he lets us in on her “star-ego” moments and her lapses into pettiness. He describes in detail how each of her homes and her ski condo at Snowmass, Colorado are decorated, and tells us of her wardrobe with her extensive collection of fur coats.
Although his book is entertaining, with a good deal of degree of unavoidable name-dropping, I think most persons prefer to do not forget Lucy as she was in the 50s when her jokes made a whole nation laugh with delight.
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